The former head of Formula 1, arrested at a Portuguese airport for carrying a shotgun

The former head of Formula 1, Bernie Ecclestonewas detained this Monday at a Portuguese airport —and released hours later—for possession of a firearmeither.

Ecclestone, 95, arrived at Tires airport, near Lisbon, where officers from the airport division of the Portuguese Public Security Police They found him a shotgun for which he did not have a permit.

In an interview with the Daily Mail, Ecclestone admitted that he had brought the gun from Switzerland to hunt pigeons. «They asked me if I had a “blue book”, which apparently is the necessary documentation, and I told them that I never travel with documents of that type“, nor with any document at all, practically,” Ecclestone explained to the British newspaper.

“They told me they would arrest me, but After what seemed like hours we solved it.although it has been a pain from start to finish.

Eccleston He headed F1 between 1987 and 2017, and divides his time between his residences in Switzerland and Portugal. It’s not the first time he’s gotten in trouble for carrying a gun in an airport. In May 2022, he was arrested at the Viracopos airport in Brazil after the police found a 32-caliber pistol in his possession.. On that occasion he had to pay a fine and was able to leave without further problems.

Ecclestone gained commercial control of F1 in the late 1970s by selling its television rights. Four decades later, the British tycoon controlled the World Cup until he decided to resign.